Pat Robertson: It Would Be Wonderful If Ronald Reagan Would Rise From The Dead

Buzzfeed: Nancy Reagan Rejected Rock Hudson's Desperate Request For Help With Experimental AIDS Treatment

Buzzfeed reporter Chris Geidner tonight revealed that official White House and Reagan documents show that Nancy Reagan rebuffed Rock Hudson's plea for help in getting access to experimental treatment as he lay dying of AIDS in Paris. The request was made through publicists Yanou Collart and Dale Olson.

Three days after Hudson’s collapse, he still lacked permission to go to the French hospital or to have Dormant see him in the American Hospital. His team’s initial attempts on the ground in Paris were not working. So they started working higher up: Collart would work her contacts with French defense officials. Back in America, Olson would ask for help from the American government.

In a desperate telegram sent at 12:22 p.m. ET on July 24, 1985, Olson made his case directly to the White House in a message addressed to Mark Weinberg — a special assistant to the president and deputy press secretary in the White House.

“Doctor Dominique Dormant specialist treating Rock Hudson in Paris, reports only one hospital in the world can offer necessary medical treatment to save life of Rock Hudson or at least alleviate his illness. This hospital is Ministere du la Defence Centre d’Researches du Service de Sante des Armees Percy Hospital in the city of Clamart,” the telegram read, with Olson going on to give the phone number to the hospital.

“Commanding general of Percy Hospital has turned down Rock Hudson as a patient because he is not French. Doctor Dormant in Paris believes a request from the White House or a high American official would change his mind. Can you help by having someone call the commanding general’s office at the Percy Hospital at the above number,” the telegram stated.  “Please advise what can be done.”

According to Buzzfeed, the former First Lady was "very sorry" to hear of Hudson's condition but advised staffers that the Reagans shouldn't give the appearance of pulling strings for their celebrity friends. She agreed with their suggestion to forward Hudson's request to the US Embassy in Paris.

Noted AIDS activist Peter Staley told Buzzfeed: "I’m sure if it had been Bob Hope in that hospital with some rare, incurable cancer, Air Force One would have been dispatched to help save him. There’s no getting around the fact that they left Rock Hudson out to dry. As soon as he had that frightening homosexual disease, he became as unwanted and ignored as the rest of us.”

Ronald Reagan finally made his first major address on AIDS nearly two years later at a May 1987 American Foundation for AIDS Research event. By the end of that year over 41,000 Americans had died of the disease. Buzzfeed wryly observes that amfAR was launched in 1985 with a $250,000 donation by Rock Hudson.

I strongly recommend you read Chris Geidner's full report. The excerpt above does not do his work justice and there are copies of telegrams and White House correspondence in his story.

GOP Holiday Sale

Sen. Rand Paul: Hillary Is Totally Old

"I think all the polls show if she does run, she’ll win the Democrat nomination. But I don’t think it’s for certain. It’s a very taxing undertaking to go through. It’s a rigorous physical ordeal, I think, to be able to campaign for the presidency." - Sen Rand Paul, speaking to Politico. Even Fox News has slammed Paul for the remark. Today Fox host Neil Cavuto denounced the attack on Clinton's age, pointing out that she would be the same age as Reagan was on inauguration day. Cavuto added that Paul did his potential candidacy "damage with that condescending swipe."

Today In Crazy People

"President Palling Around With Terrorists: Good God, Mr. President. To partner with Iran is to trust the enemy, which is insane. Iran has complicity in the rise of ISIS as it supports radical militias and arms Islamic terrorists. You've been the luckiest man in the world, in an un-American Democracy sort of way, to have had the liberal media in your lap allowing you to execute the least transparent presidency in history while they mock and destroy your critics for you. Until now. Even they must see that without accountability you are leading us into very, very dangerous territory.

"In the 2008 campaign Sen. McCain and I warned, on behalf of every reasonable person, that your willingness to negotiate with terrorists would get Americans killed; that pulling an anti-Reagan move by taking our Big Stick of strength and putting it in the hands of any foe could be insurmountably devastating for our allies. Iran is one of Israel's staunchest enemies. Mr. President, who is advising you to come against Israel? What is wrong with you, Barack Obama? You can not pal around with terrorists and expect us to survive." - Sarah Palin, who clearly wasn't reading newspapers in the 80s either.

Nancy Reagan's Astrologer Dies At 87

Via the New York Times:

In his 1988 memoir, Donald T. Regan, a former chief of staff for President Ronald Reagan, revealed what he called the administration’s “most closely guarded secret.” He said an astrologer had set the time for summit meetings, presidential debates, Reagan’s 1985 cancer surgery, State of the Union addresses and much more. Without an O.K. from the astrologer, he said, Air Force One did not take off. The astrologer, whose name Mr. Regan did not know when he wrote the book, was Joan Quigley. She died on Tuesday at 87 at her home in San Francisco, her sister and only immediate survivor, Ruth Quigley, said. Mr. Regan said that Miss Quigley — a Vassar-educated socialite who preferred the honorific Miss to Ms. (she never married) — had made her celestial recommendations through phone calls to the first lady, Nancy Reagan, often two or three a day. Mrs. Reagan, he said, set up private lines for her at the White House and at the presidential retreat at Camp David.

Quigley was introduced to the Reagans by Merv Griffin.

Ayn Rand: How Is She Still A Thing?

From last night's Last Week Tonight.

Crazy Eyes: Schlafly Ended The Cold War

Quote Of The Day - Michael Stipe

"In the early Eighties, as a 22-year-old queer man living during the Reagan-Bush administration, I was afraid to get tested for HIV for fear of quarantine, the threat of internment camps and having my basic civil rights stripped away. I waited five years to get my first anonymous test. I am happy that attitudes have matured and changed, and I feel lucky that I live in a country where acceptance, tolerance and policy toward HIV-AIDS and LGBTQ issues have advanced as far as they have." - REM frontman Michael Stipe, speaking on tonight's episode of Trailblazers on Logo.

From The Moonie Times

62% of Washington Times readers believe Ronald Reagan would have been a teabagger. Shocking! (Tipped by JMG reader Alan)

COMPILATION: Gay News In The 1980s

JMG reader Dave Evans has compiled an hour of gay-related news reports that aired in the 1980s. Among the topics: hate crimes, housing rights, HIV/AIDS, immigration rights, pride parades, Barney Frank, Ronald Reagan, the 20th anniversary of Stonewall, the NAMES Project,  and rather interestingly, Houston's 1985 battle for LGBT rights.

PREVIOUSLY ON JMG: Compilations of gay news in the 1970s and the first ten years of HIV/AIDS.

HIV/AIDS News: The First Ten Years

JMG reader Dave Evans has compiled the below hour-long clip of news reports from the first ten years of HIV/AIDS. Noted figures that appear: Ryan White, Lyndon La Rouche, Larry Kramer, Ronald Reagan,  Magic Johnson, and Cleve Jones.

Ron Reagan: I'm A Lifelong Atheist And I'm Not Afraid Of Burning In Hell

30 Years Ago Today

"First, the probable cause of AIDS has been found: a variant of a known human cancer virus. Second, not only has the agent been identified, but a new process has been developed to mass produce this virus. Thirdly, with the discovery of both the virus and this new process, we now have a blood test for AIDS. With a blood test, we can identify AIDS victims with essentially 100% certainty." - Margaret Heckler, Health & Human Services Secretary for the Reagan administration, announcing 30 years ago today that the virus which causes AIDS had been identified.

MSNBC reports on the mistakes that were made that morning:

Her hastily arranged press conference was full of blunders—she jumped the gun by two months because of a press leak, claimed U.S. credit for what was largely a French discovery, misidentified the newly discovered virus, and wrongly predicted that a vaccine would be ready within two years (we still don’t have one). Yet the announcement had epochal impact. It revealed the source of what would soon become one of the worst plagues in human history, and it sparked scientific and social revolutions that are still playing out today. Three years earlier, in the spring of 1981, a ghastly new disease had exploded in the gay communities of New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. It eviscerated people’s immune systems, allowing normally harmless pathogens to consume them. Though initially dismissed as a “gay plague,” it had begun killing hemophiliacs and injection drug users, as well as their partners and newborns, and it was spreading worldwide.

I was 24 years old on that day and I remember a flurry of excited phone calls with friends. I also vividly recall being at Orlando's Parliament House that night, where beloved drag performer Miss P led the audience in a celebratory group toast. As we held up our cocktails, Miss P gave us our line: "Here's to SCIENCE. And FUCK Ronald Reagan." Heckler's promise of an imminent vaccine, a promise that cruelly resurfaced so many time over the following decades, brought so much giddy happiness to the room that night. Miss P died of AIDS in 2004. There's a wonderful mural of her at the entrance to the Parliament House disco. 

But still, 30 years later, here's to science.

And fuck Ronald Reagan.

RELATED: See this great obit for Miss P by the Orlando Sentinel.

DNC History Fail

Wingnuts are having a field day.

Glenn Beck: Ted Cruz Is The New Reagan

Asshat Of The Day - Michael Reagan

"This fight over Proposition 8 isn’t just about saying it should be legal in the eyes of government for two people of the same sex to get married in California. It’s ultimately about changing the culture of the entire country; it inevitably will lead to teaching our public school kids that gay marriage is a perfectly fine alternative and no different than traditional marriage. There is also a very slippery slope leading to other alternative relationships and the unconstitutionality of any law based on morality. Think about polygamy, bestiality, and perhaps even murder. Churches should be in the vanguard of the fight to defend the culture against legalized gay marriage, not hiding in their pews." - Michael Reagan, writing for the Ironton Tribune.

Obama Quotes Reagan On Gun Control

LCR Responds To Flip-Off Flap

"It is unfortunate that the image conservative America is seeing today of LGBT people is of gay leftists misbehaving at the White House, rather than the millions of patriotic, decent LGBT citizens, many of whom, like Log Cabin Republicans, hold President Ronald Reagan in high esteem.These photographs have hurt our community and make advocating for inclusion and equality more difficult. The participants should be ashamed." - Christian Berle, deputy executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans.

Activists Flip-Off Reagan Portrait During White House LGBT Pride Reception

Free Republic, Glenn Beck's The Blaze, and other wingnuts sites are going nuts today on the news that several LGBT activists visiting the White House for the Pride reception took turns photographing themselves flipping off the Reagan portrait. The photos were published this morning by Philadelphia Magazine, but thanks to closet-case Matt Drudge's screaming WWIII-style headline, the title's site has crashed. The right-wing Weekly Standard has a quote from one of the activists that took part:

[Matthew] Hart posted his photo on Facebook with the caption, “Fuck Reagan.” [Zoe] Strauss simply posted hers without commentary. After all, the murderous facial expression and double-barreled bird-flipping seem to speak for themselves. Comments ranged from “you forgot to add with a chainsaw” on Hart’s “Fuck Reagan” note, to my personal favorite, “star wars … up yours,” on Strauss’s. “Yeah, fuck Reagan,” reiterates Hart one week after the reception. “Ronald Reagan has blood on his hands. The man was in the WhiteHouse as AIDS exploded, and he was happy to see plenty of gay men and queer people die. He was a murderous fool, and I have no problem saying so. Don’t invite me back. I don’t care.”

Sample comment from The Blaze: "Thank god that by the time their AID’s rotten corpses are defacing a human cemetery, the picture of that hero will still be here loved by all."